1. Field
Aspects of the exemplary embodiments relate to an image forming apparatus, a host device and a print controlling method, and, more particularly, to an image forming apparatus which is capable of searching a host device and connecting to the searched host device, and a host device and a print controlling method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus refers to an apparatus which prints print data generated by a print controlling terminal, such as a computer, on a recording paper, and examples of such an image forming apparatus include a copier, a printer, a fax machine, and a multi-function peripheral (MFP) which combines the functions of the aforementioned apparatuses into one apparatus.
Before a print controlling terminal performs a print job using an image forming apparatus, the print controlling terminal should be connected to the image forming apparatus.
Conventionally, the print controlling terminal searches for a connectable image forming apparatus, selects one of the searched or found image forming apparatuses, and connects to the selected image forming apparatus.
Recently, with the development of a mobile print environment, a print job is often performed in a new environment, and usually there are a plurality of connectable image forming apparatuses in an office or a campus environment. In order to select an image forming apparatus to connect, a user should have information on a model name or an IP address of the image forming apparatus to connect.
If the user does not know the model name or an IP address of the image forming apparatus to which to connect, the user should access the image forming apparatus to identify its model name and IP address, and this causes inconvenience to the user.